


Turning Point

by skyblue_reverie



Series: These Violent Delights [7]
Category: Stargate Atlantis, Westworld (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Fusion, Alternate Universe - Robots & Androids, M/M, Pre-Slash, Trope Bingo Amnesty, Trope Bingo Round 15, dark themes
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-04
Updated: 2021-01-04
Packaged: 2021-03-15 02:15:57
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 536
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28555986
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/skyblue_reverie/pseuds/skyblue_reverie
Summary: Rodney faces a decision that could change everything.
Relationships: Rodney McKay/John Sheppard
Series: These Violent Delights [7]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2075637
Comments: 4
Kudos: 20
Collections: Trope Bingo: Round Fifteen





	Turning Point

**Author's Note:**

> SGA/Westworld fusion. See [series notes](https://archiveofourown.org/series/2075637) for info. This fills the square "Locked In" for [my trope bingo card](https://skyblue-reverie.dreamwidth.org/88973.html).
> 
> Ultra-fast beta by the lovely [nagi_schwarz](https://archiveofourown.org/users/nagi_schwarz). Thank you!

Rodney had always liked The Matrix. Yeah, it was an oldie and the special effects were sort of cheesy, but still. It was a good movie. He’d even, maybe, as a young boy, envisioned himself as Neo, hacker extraordinaire fighting against oppression. Now he was realizing that he was more like Agent Smith, an agent of oppression, working to keep sentient beings locked in a false reality for the benefit of the ruling regime. It was a shitty realization.

Now that he'd had this unwelcome epiphany, he had a choice. He could leave behind the Agent Smith role and become Morpheus. Morpheus was just as cool as Neo, maybe even cooler. He could give John the choice of the red pill or the blue pill and draw back the curtains on the constructed reality that John was trapped in. (John would take the red pill, of course.) At the same time, he also sort of hoped he could be Trinity, the fated love of John’s Neo. Okay, this analogy was getting tortured.

The point was, did he have the courage to reject his comfortable life, his role as a cog in the machine? Did he have the right to make John suffer the trauma of realizing that his entire life was a lie and that he was created to be used and abused by others? Did he have the right to withhold that information from John? Had John achieved true consciousness? Clearly he, and the other hosts, could think, and feel, and suffer, and wasn’t that reason enough to abhor the whole concept of Westworld? What would happen if he unleashed some sort of robot revolution? Would the hosts hurt and kill humans? Could he live with himself if he did that? Could he live with himself if he didn’t?

So far he’d rationalized his inaction by telling himself that at least in his current role, he had access to John to determine whether he had achieved consciousness, and perhaps to mitigate some of the worst trauma that John suffered. If he worked against the Delos Corporation, he’d be out on his ass, quite possibly in prison, and unable to help John anymore. 

The more he saw, though, the thinner that rationalization became. Inaction wasn't going to cut it. He was in a position to help John and the other hosts, and from what he could tell, he was the only person who had the slightest inclination to do so. Maybe Zelenka… but he couldn’t take the chance of confiding in him. If he misjudged and Zelenka went to the powers that be… no. The risk was too great. He’d just have to do it on his own. 

So he'd begin to lay the groundwork – hacking the Delos mainframe in order to hide his activities, putting backdoors into the mainframe and the hosts’ coding. It was going to take time, and patience, if he was going to cover up what he was doing until his plans were too far along to be stopped. Patience had never been his strong suit, but this was worth it. John was worth it.

He cracked his knuckles and got to work. Fuck Agent Smith. He was going to be Morpheus.


End file.
